Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen ... (Part 1)

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen: We’re About to Discuss the Resurrection of the Dead! (Part 1)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

1.

The very thought of it is flat-out spooky. Yet we Jews accept as a matter of faith that the dead will eventually come alive once again! Whew. Talk about way out there.

Yet the great prophet Ezekiel spoke about it at length, and a lot is riding on your believing in it. After all, if you don’t believe that the resurrection of the dead is alluded to in the Torah, you’re out to lose your place in The World to Come!

As the tradition puts it, there’ll come a time after the Messiah will have arrived when everyone then alive will die, and most (not all, though) will arise “out of the ashes”, souls will slip into bodies once again, and walk away in stunned wonder.

What’s going on? We’ll try to explain that shortly enough. But first a few words about the meaning of our lives, good versus evil, and the stark and raw fact that most of us seem to be in pain, and are going off the mark all the time. Stay with me, please!

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".